Outer Limits 4x4 Board

Hey guys im trying to diagnoise a problem with my Feroza and was wondering if I could get some general info on your rigs.

Mine is using around 1 litre of oil a week or 400-500kms. This seems extremely high, the previous owner said it used some oil and that Ferozas were known for burning oil, surely nowhere near this much?

It blows smoke when your giving it stick above 4500-5000rpm, which doesnt happen very often! Just had the engine degreased, was a bit of oil around, might be leaking should be able to tell where if so.

Secondly water temp! My gauge sits totally vertical, right in the middle. Sometimes when driving up big ass hils on the highways it will climb a few mm's to the right, nothin to extreme, was just wondering where the normal operating range is on the Feroza? It climbed to almost the right hand side of the F after stopping at a Red light just coming off the highway, had barely been stopped 30 seconds after 2 hours of light highway driving.

Im thinking about removing the air con fan and sticking a 15 inch davies craig thermo in. Wire it to the air con circuit and also a temp switch.

Hoping I dont have a blown headgasket, wouldnt be surprised if its done an oil gallery. Do ferozas have oil gallerys running up through the head? I'd say shagged piston rings is a far more likely prospect.

Cheers
Brad

ok.. sounds like what i've been going through...


i was burning about 1l of oil every 100 or so k's..
had loss of power, surging, and fuel economy was pathetic... 300k's from 47L's if I was lucky...


I had the head done... 3 cracks, 2 cracks in the headers.

So $1800 later, I have a reco'd head, extractors and still burning oil and running like a dog..


changed plugs and leads..

Running better but still not great..

changed the dissy cap and rotor... running alot better


Still burning oil... so obviously the rings are rootard.. So i'm just running thickish oil with an additive, I'm burning ALOT let oil now..



As for water temp, in between the plugs and dissy being done, I went offroad... went through some nice big bog holes...

Next day, car running excessively hot.. having to run the heater in the car and watch the thermo temp drop drastically..

so ripped the radiator out and gave it a good going over with the karcher on both sides, and straightened a few fines there were damaged (Previous to me touching it)..

The car heat runs about 10 degrees cooler, and the car temp is down dramatically.. To the point that it is cooler then when I first bought it, and the heater fades from Hot to Cold properly giving warm air instead of just HOT and then COLD once you reached cold..

So yeah def rip the radiator out and clean it, if it's been off road it is the only way you will get the mud/dust out from all of the edges...


appologies for the long reply..

Thanks for the long reply, some good ideas in there !

I went for the Valvoline Maxlife oil for engines with over 100,000km, i think its a 20w50 so it is a bit thicker then the recommended oil for standard. Think i will definately be up for a new set of rings in the near future though.

I know this is really not an accurate way of measuring temp, id like to get an actual water temp gauge, but where does ure temp gauge sit now that you got the radiator flushed out?

Dead vertical or slightly below?

Cheers
Brad

My temp gauge sits just above 1/3 normally- if it gets to half I know it's running hot (due to the electric thermo). Before I converted over to the electric fan it never moved from just above 1/3. If you're having over heating problems then don't convert to an electric thermo, your problems will only get worse.

If you can afford it I'd recommend getting a new radiator. My top tank was repaired just after I bought mine 2yrs ago, now I'm starting to get overheating problems which I think are due to the radiator being blocked (new water pump 2 yrs ago, thermostat 1 yr ago.) Will be picking up a new radiaor tommorrow.

In short don't stuff around and bother getting the radiator repaired- it's not worth the money when you can pick up a brand new Denso one for just over $300. If the tank's gone then the core is probably partially blocked too.

On the pinging side of things I'm fairly certain engines that burn oil are more prone to doing it (deposits in the cylinder create hot spots and increase compression.) Retard your timing or run 98 octane exclusively- otherwise you'll quickly get major engine damage.

Thanks Murcod, the pissweak repair job they did on my radiator hasnt lasted anyway. I requested a new top tank, seems they just soldered it. I am going to ask for credit towards new rad, thats bullshit!

cheers
Brad

Brad, make sure you check out the other thread on radiators. Apparently there are three different types for Ferozas!?

The one Denso sell direct to the public will only fit post 9/93 IIRC. I think it's to suit the Ferozas with the updated grille and headlights? It wouldn't fit mine, a 4/92.